Week of September 26

 

Thursday Thoughts September 26

 

This week I had to take off my principal hat and trade it in for my mom hat.  I don't mean that I had to carpool or cook ....I mean that I worried (like all moms do) because my son was sick and I couldn't get clear answers.  Please know that he is fine and that is not really the gist of this story.  But as he was being poked and prodded by numerous doctors I kept thinking..... this child (my children) represent the best part of me.  They represent the best that I am, the best thing I'll ever do in life and the best that I have to offer the world.  I would move heaven and earth for them.  Thus I figured this must be how our parents feel when they send their children to school....to us.  This is how they must feel when they fight for things that we consider minor or when they make a "big deal" out of something that we see occur everyday.  So I am challenging myself to start viewing the many parent situations that I deal with through their eyes.  If I know that they are fighting for or reasoning with me about their most valuable possession, then I hope that I will have the ability to look at the situation through their eyes and spend just an extra minute or two letting them know that I too think their child is valuable. 


Staff Spotlight:
I would like to shine the spotlight on Nisha Bradley this week.  Although Nisha is a part of the administrative team, her responsibilities far exceed those of an administrative capacity.  In addition to teaching classes, working with individual students and facilitating SST meetings, Nisha organizes the PALS program and oversees the parent volunteer registry process.  You can find Nisha in carpool most mornings assisting students with a smile on her face.  I can tell you that I have visited her office more than once for "counseling".  Nisha is an example of the many "one person" departments that are vital to our school success.


4C's: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking Skills

Technology and the 4C's

Written by Amber Brown

In my post about the 4 C’s, I mentioned that technology plays a significant role in building these necessary skills. How so? How can simple gadgets help build these monumental skills that are expected to propel our students forward?
Well, for starters, we have to stop thinking of technology use strictly for researching information, typing papers, or practicing fact/drills. It can certainly be used for efficiency and neatness, but technology is a multi-faceted tool, and if we teach our students to view and utilize it to its full potential, then we will begin to sow the seed of the 21^st Century learner.

Creativity and Innovation
There are a multitude of interactive web2.0 and multimedia tools already available to the educational environment. To fully reap the benefits of these tools, we need to think outside the proverbial box and expand our creative ideas in order to guide our students to complete tasks that expect them to do the same. Elementary students can be assigned to create simple web pages that teach other students how to display and solve simple mathematical arrays. Middle school and secondary students can be assigned to design interactive games to apply the standards covered in recent social studies or biology lessons. Digital storytelling can be used by students to create non-linguistic representations of a concept. Technology offers endless possibilities in encouraging student (and teacher!) creativity and innovative ideas.

Communication
Whether students realize it or not, they love to communicate! Social networks like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook have clearly dominated life as we know it. They all actively encourage students to communicate, so why aren’t we? Why are educators nervous about harnessing the power of these networks to further learning objectives? Teachers can use Twitter to introduce a new topic/unit of learning by tweeting the topic (i.e. the Civil War) and students can be required to reply with information about the topic before the next class (i.e. start/end date, purpose, location, etc.). Similarly, with Facebook, post a debatable topic related to the current lesson and let students respond and discuss their opinions. Require them to back up their opinions with data, and post links to the source of their information. If we demonstrate how to use social networks in a positive manner – using professional text – and require our students to do the same, we will have a new wealth of resources that will inspire our students to communicate about educational topics with one another.

Collaboration
Wikis, blogs, presentations – all infamous for the ability to allow people to collaborate with one another – can easily be used in conjunction with classroom activities to encourage interaction. Why not take it up a notch? Pair with a teacher in another school (or even another state!) and have students use the internet to collaborate with long-distance partners. Web based presentations like Prezi allow users in different locations to be able to access, create, and edit presentations online with ease. Incorporating technology enhances students’ ability to work with one another, whether in the same group in class or in different time zones across the United States.

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Critical thinking uses the upper crust of the new Blooms taxonomy (analyzing, evaluating, and creating) to solve problems. Students can quickly learn how to analyze and evaluate informative blogs before creating their own. Educators can present students with the beginning stages of a web page project, provide them with expected outcomes, and allow them to create their own finished product. Mind-mapping has proven to be a great tool to use in visualizing problems and planning the thought-process towards a solution. There are web-based tools available that allow students to create mind-maps from home or in class. Mindomo is one such program.
We must remember, though, technology does not solve problems on its own. Educators should present technology as a tool used in the problem solving process as opposed to looking at technology as the solution itself. We must instill in our students that technology is an extension of their own thinking.

Preparing students for the 21^st Century is undoubtedly different from the manner of teaching used in past decades, though I’d like to believe we are perhaps more fortunate than those who taught us. We have a wealth of digital tools readily available to us that provide such magnificent opportunities to engage and guide students in attaining the necessary skills. It’s time we start applying them in our classrooms today!

  
Technology Tidbits:

Check out the following websites:

http://kids.usa.gov/index.shtml

Amazing site that will link you to hundreds of websites for all disciplines.

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/
Students have the ability to make their own comic strips using this site.  (please play around on the site before you have the students try)

 News & Notes

We are one of several elementary schools that will be receiving new playgrounds.  An assessment was done in July and it has been confirmed that our playscapes will be replaced.  At this point I only have a copy of the prototype but as soon as we are given a firm installation date I will let you know.  The three playscapes that we currently have will be replaced with two larger ones (K-2nd and  3rd-5th).  I will share additional details once I have them.