Digital Blog Post #B

In Chapter 3, I have gained more perspective on different concepts and relevant topics that make it a bit difficult to reflect on only three.  Each concept will be essential to my future classroom and my students.  In my recent post, I emphasized on the Flipped Learning method.  I have found more ideas in this chapter to be a great addition to that.  Using a web tool from Module 4, I created a short slide, from Haikudeck.com, consisting of concepts that I will reflect on in this post.

From the four learning theories, I chose Constructionism, even though I feel they are all good ideas. This theory explains how children will desire to learn something more aggressively when they take a part in forming, constructing or molding what they are learning.  I fully believe that this type of thinking would help me as an educator because I have seen for myself that taking part of an activity helps a child to learn a particular lesson.  For example, my daughter started at the age of 5 using packets of muffin mix (the kind you just add water to) into a bowl to mix and bake. In our adult eyes, that seems like an easy, no-brain way to make muffins(I still love those muffin mixes).  For her, at that stage in her life, it was an accomplishment, and she was learning basic math skills such as measuring and number of ingredients.  As she has grown, she thought of ways to improve recipes and to make it her own. She has added onto that by making muffins (and many other baked goods) from scratch.  When I tried having her do a "ditto" to learn the baking process (with some math concepts included because I thought I was attempting to teach a lesson here), she was bored and uninterested.  I had to learn the hard way that all she ever wanted was hands-on learning from the start.  I did not want to take away the desire to do something that helped her learn.  Had I started with a worksheet first and then the muffin mix packet, she might have never loved baking as she does now ( I will never know).  It has become a hobby for her.  So, being that I have experienced this somewhat on my own, it would only make sense to reflect on it and say that I want to remind myself of this theory and continue to build on that now and in the future.

Image made at Canva.com

My second concept is groupwork and collaboration. I feel a this is a productive way of learning and would be a great addition to the flipped learning method as well.  My children are in a 4-H homeschool group that meets once a month.  After much collaboration with our children (students), we made our educational goal to learn to live happy and healthy lives in Florida. With that theme in mind for our group, each child has their curriculum book (that they chose themselves) to do activities in and learn about at home.  They use our computers to research further into the activity and get visuals in correlation to what they are learning. Then, as we meet as a group, we come together and focus on that theme (our goal) and build on by applying what they learn from their individual curriculums. My youngest is learning hands-on in Entomology, my daughter is learning about her pet cat exploring all about their anatomy and particular needs, and my oldest son is learning about computer hardware.  They bring with them their knowledge and integrate it into the group activities. This meeting a gentleman came in with sealed vials and shadow boxes with indigenous insects so they could see just how different in size they were compared to here in our country.  The group asked him questions and shared what they had learned before the presentation.

Image created by Jerri Thompson from Picktochart.com

Last but not least, digital citizenship. Digitial citizenship is a critical concept that needs to be taught not only in the classrooms but also adults (even in the workplace).  In a technology-driven world full of social network sites and many websites, this is one concept that is abused all of the time.  Could be due to ignorance or being led to believe that search engines and shared articles are the best (and fastest) way to look for information or get the latest news. I have fallen victim to this at random times and felt foolish of not finding the facts first before posting.  It is important to me as I learn to become a 21st Century teacher (and now as a home educator) that I need to practice this. I plan to incorporate this into regular class assignments so that it becomes a natural routine.  I hope to get better as I am going through each of the modules in this course.

Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013 ). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Thompson, J (2016, February 7). Technology in the Classroom. Created with Bitstrips. http://www.bitstrips.com/user/XVX8KS/read.php?comic_id=P0NXK&subsection=1

Thompson, J (2016, February 7). Created with Canva.com. https://www.canva.com/design/DABqO_yj0AA/XUMZh4ouAvPKM2mlUAMlMg/edit

ThinkExsist.com (2015).  Retrieved February 7, 2016, from http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the-role-of-the-teacher-is-to-create-the/391881.html

Powtoon.com (2016) Digital Citizenship Post B. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/ddUIDkbhZsh/digital-citizenship-post-b/