I was put in charge of the visual aid for my group's Educational Psychology presentation on Learning Strategies and Teaching for Transfer happening this Thursday and this is what I came up with! Here's the entire family! I attached magnets to the backs of the huge one and the baby one. These 2 will move from topic to topic on the poster board as my group talks about each subject. The 3 middle sized ones with yarn hang off of the "Visual Organizers" web. I'll ask the class if they can think of a few visual organizers and then flip the spiders over to reveal my 3 examples: Concept Maps, Venn Diagrams, and Tree Diagrams.
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I just read this article which really interested me because I am an artist, and therefore, I tend to draw while I sit in lecture or study. This article gave me ideas on how I could use the drawing skills I have in the classroom setting. Actually, you don't even really have to be good at drawing for this to work (to a certain extent...)
Here is the link before I start gushing about how much I love this concept: VISUAL NOTE-TAKING IN THE CLASSROOM I love the term Sketchnoting! As I was reading through the article, many concepts and ideas we have been studying in classes for the past few weeks came together and everything made so much sense. I feel like a mega nerd feeling all excited about learning, but that's just another awesome teacher quality we have, right? The article talked about how we could have sketches and diagrams prepared before class and just use them as visuals, but there are many benefits to drawing the pictures in front of the class. Drawing illustrations while discussing a topic helps engage a different part of the brain, not to mention, students will love the goofy looking pictures you come up with! Personally, I have experienced moments when I pull out a blank piece of paper and start drawing, and all the students want to come watch. They were always so attentive and interested in the story I was making up right there on the spot! I appreciate that not everyone is confident with their drawing skills, but I still stand by my belief that even stick people can be used effectively! I really think we need to challenge ourselves continually so if you've mastered stick people, time to take it up a notch! The teacher in the article discovered that while she was doing all this sketchnoting, she was learning more than the students! As beneficial as it is for her, the same can benefit her students. In order to encourage students to take the risk and draw pictures even if they feel they "aren't good," she suggested giving a time limit of a minute so they can quickly sketch down their ideas in a more reflexive way. At the end of the article, she listed 5 main reasons why sketchnoting works: 1. It exercises student's kinesthetic, auditory, linguistic, and verbal skills, 2. Visuals can be a formative assessment teachers can interpret immediately and build upon knowledge, 3. It can generate a dopamine surge and lower stress, 4. Visuals help the brain make connections, and 5. It's a lot of fun and can give the brain a "break" while still reviewing what was learned. Obviously there will be times when sketchnoting is not the best method for teaching, and it certainly shouldn't be the only method used. As we've learned in Evaluation and Assessment class, we need a variety of teaching methods and formative assessments to make sure students are learning what we need them to learn. I'm excited to try and use this strategy in a classroom setting. I think I will try this with one of the projects/presentations which are due very soon.... As an aside, I've noticed recently that when I procrastinate, I'm reading more education related articles. :P Today in Communication Technology class we learned a bit about how powerful a tool Smartboards can be. I had a chance to use one briefly while I was working this summer as an Activity Assistant/Tour guide/teacher for a few groups of visiting Chinese students. I remember one of the lessons I had to teach before leading them to the Victoria Bug Zoo was an introduction to the names of different kinds of bugs, as well as a quiz game.
On the screen there were many pictures of bugs, and their names were hidden behind shapes that could be moved. When I moved the first few shapes to reveal the answers, the students were ooh-ing and ahh-ing enthusiastically as they marveled at the technology. I admit I thought it was pretty cool but I didn't know there were so many more possibilities of interactive lessons besides simply hiding and revealing answers until today's class. While quickly looking through some examples of Smartboard lessons, I noticed one that had a colourful keyboard for a music lesson and I mentally took note to investigate further when I'm not drowning in a sea of homework and projects. I'm pretty excited for my group's presentation on Pointillism next week! We have a few ideas on how we can incorporate the Smartboard into a Gr.5 art lesson. I just read a blog post I thought may be useful for us PS I students to read and think about. It has to do with classroom management, something I'm sure we're all a little bit worried about. In the blog, the writer identifies 3 main concepts to think about as we start our life-long commitment to the teaching profession.
1. We have to deal with even the smallest behaviour issues or possible behaviour issues in the first week of class. What do you think might happen if you allow little things like running in the hallway, whispering in class while the teacher is talking, and such things like that go? Hmm....it could become a nightmare! 2. Addressing a problem doesn't mean you're being a big meanie, and it doesn't mean you're punishing anyone. Like we learned in our "Teacher as a Performer" workshop (which was super awesome, by the way!!) there are many steps, or bumps, we take to deal with classroom issues. The important thing is to remain calm and in control. While enforcing the behaviours you want in your classroom, just make sure you are being respectful and fair. As long as the students understand why certain rules are put into place, hopefully they will be more willing to comply! 3. We must be confident! The students can probably sense our fear and nervousness but we can do our best to pretend we're confident! After awhile, hopefully we'll be confident for real once we get to know the routines, the students, the school, and the subject matter we're teaching. Anyway, I better get back to working on the ever-growing pile of assignments! Here is a link to the blog, though. When I have some more time I'll explore the page a little more because I think there's a lot of interesting information there! Teach 4 the Heart During this week's Communication Technology class we discussed what it means to integrate technology in our classrooms. What does it mean to be a learner in the 21st century? We watched the following short video which presented some interesting, and at times surprising, information and statistics.
Did You Know 4.0 While watching the video, a few things came to mind. First of all, it seems like there's no escape from this world where technology is quickly taking over our lives so we could either fight it or embrace it. Learning to use existing and emerging technology could be very effective in our classrooms as long as we keep the emphasis on learning, and don't allow the novelty of the gadgets to distract or take away from our learning objectives. So, what does it mean to be a learner in this day and age? There isn't one definitive answer but a few of the implications may include a global awareness of current world events. What particularly interested me was the opportunity to establish connections with schools and students from anywhere in the world to collaborate on projects. A few years back, students would be limited to their own research on a local level but now we can share and exchange ideas with people who may have different sources of research. Integrating technology in the art classroom is an area I will have to look into further in the near future! Tom, my Communications Technology prof, sent us a link about this program that will encourage students to learn more about their city and its cultural elements. There are 9 different venues including the Galt Museum, and the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens here in Lethbridge.
Jessica Marcotte, the creator of this program said, “My goals for this were to promote individualized and self-motivated learning, because the kids take the passport out and then they’re responsible to go out and experience Lethbridge." Here is a link to the article from the Lethbridge Herald: Edventure Passport I'm really excited about this program because I come from Victoria, BC, a place where an insane number of tourists visit every year. It is a place full of history, heritage buildings and structures, tourist attractions and festivals (just like every city anywhere, but I just happen to have a deeper personal connection to my hometown.) Because I hope to return to my island to start my teaching career in the near future, whenever I hear about fun ideas like the Edventure Passport, I try to think about how I can adapt it to Victoria. Instantly, a list of my favourite places around town pop up in my brain. Victoria is bigger than Lethbridge, though it is still considered a small city. I think narrowing down the list of venues I want to include in the passport to about 10 would be ideal. Because I have volunteered and worked a lot showing international students, and have been in a few art shows around Victoria, I have some connections I can start speaking to about potentially making something like this happen when I (hopefully) find a teaching job back home! "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." |