Lesson #5: Socrative

So today we're going to explore a web tool called Socrative. Basically it's a website where teachers can create their own quizzes (multiple choice, short answer, or true/false) and have their students access them via computer, tablet, or even smart phone. Teachers can also view a live feed of their students answers as they complete the quiz!

Having tried out this technology for myself, I highly recommend it for several reasons:

1. Freedom. Socrative allows students the freedom to access the quiz from anywhere at any time, making it a super-useful, super-accessible teaching tool for the digital age.

2. Teacher- and student-paced modes. In teacher-paced made, the teacher can choose when to make questions available (e.g. as content is covered). In student-paced mode, students have complete access to all questions and can pick-and-choose what questions they want to answer at their own pace. Sounds like a win-win to me!

3. Instant feedback. As students complete the quiz, you can see what questions they got wrong and their overall percentage. In addition, you can also see when multiple students are having trouble with a particular question. This can tell you what concepts you need to go back and review or, in my case, tells you when a question is unclear or contains errors.

That's basically it in a nutshell. Now go try it for yourself!

Lesson #4: A's Aren't Everything

So what's up with my title, right? Isn't it common knowledge that everyone who gets A's are super smart and people who get anything else are just lazy and dumb? Well....no. I'm here to bust my first education myth and to let you in on a little secret about how school works.

You see, I am one of those people who breezed through school when I was younger. I got A's constantly, was teased for being the "teacher's pet", and even got voted "most studious" in eighth grade. I didn't even receive my first B on a transcript until I was a high school sophomore. School was easy for me. But it's not because I spent hours studying. Yeah sure, I aced all the tests, but the real reason behind it was not my study habits but my memory. From a very young age, I was blessed with an impeccable memory and this, conveniently, helped me whiz through school.

It was not until I got to college when my GPA started to decline. The classes were not as easy as they once were and I had not yet developed the study habits of some of my peers. I realized that for all those years, I learned nothing except how to get the highly coveted A that I needed and I moved on. I had learned how to "beat the system", nothing more.

Then it occurred to me that there was an issue here. Shouldn't the goal of education be to learn, not to "win"?

Enter ED 202: Teaching and Learning. Check out this YouTube video featuring my teacher Chris Haskell:

IP11: Chris Haskell - Blowing Up the Grade Book

Great video isn't it? Having had this enlightening experience, everything makes sense now. I greatly prefer his system of learning, where school is less about competition and is more of an environment where students embrace failure and learn from their mistakes. This sort of system makes it more equitable for the student, rather than setting up a system where they are doomed to fail from the get-go. Unless, of course, they bow down to the Education Gods (teachers) and complete every assignment on time and without flaw.

In Haskell's world, we acknowledge that students have their own lives to worry about and are capable of managing their own time. This makes assignments with due dates inappropriate. Besides, all due dates do is guarantee assignments aren't completed until the last possible second (am I right?). This is extremely detrimental to the learning environment.

Another reason I love his philosophy is because it gives students a choice. Oftentimes, students view school as a place where they must obey, not create. By giving them choice, it allows them to follow the curriculum in a way that is relevant to themselves and their goals; it allows them to invest their time and energy into what they believe is interesting and worthwhile. Exciting concept, huh?

Now, I am not as optimistic as my teacher is regarding how quickly these changes will happen. Through my other friends who are teachers, I know that schools do not adapt very quickly to change. They try their best but their attempts are not always successful. One reason for this is funding. However, what Haskell is proposing does not necessarily require a $1,000,000,000 grant (it would be nice, but it's not necessary). All it takes is a little extra effort from teachers to try and change the status quo. This is not an easy task but I believe it will benefit our students in ways we never imagined.

Lesson #3: The Classroom Environment

This post is less of a "lesson" and more of my own working thesis about how to organize my future classroom. Suggestions are greatly encouraged!

Vision:

This quote by Einstein is one of my absolute favorite of all time and will form the basis of my classroom vision. I plan on having it on the wall as a center piece in my classroom. The essence of this quote is the idea that all individuals are different and they have their own unique area of expertise. When someone is forced to travel outside that area, they become less proficient at what they are doing. This does not mean they are stupid or incompetent, just outside their comfort zone. I plan on instilling this idea in my students. What this means for me as the teacher is to adjust the curriculum and teaching style in a way that is relevant to each individual student. Hopefully, I will find a simple and relatively painless way to do this. Otherwise, I will have a lot of work on my hands. But even if that is the case, it will be worth it for both myself and the students.

                                                                                         Look & Feel:

To figure out what I want my classroom to be like, I must refer back to the classrooms I most enjoyed being a part of. The two that immediately come to mind were my high school comparative religions and drawing classes.

In comparative religions, there were tibetan flags, religious images, and star trek posters on the wall. The primary purpose for this was of course the theme of the class but the presence of the star trek posters obviously reflected the personality of my teacher. Though I might not be able to integrate quite as much cultural influence into an earth science classroom (unfortunately), I will definitely be able to display my personality. I am not quite sure what that means at this point but it will most likely involve the Peanuts gang or some sort of nerdy poster. However, it is not beneath me to plaster My Little Pony and Frozen posters all over the walls (just kidding...sort of).

In drawing class, what I remember most is being able to listen to music and work independently for the entire session. Music will not be a hard thing to integrate but I am still working on how to let my students work in a completely independent environment in an earth science classroom. The field of science inherently involves some degree of guidance, with lab exercises and some of the material, but I am hoping that I will be able to have a degree of round table discussion. This may include a literature review of current scientific papers. This could occurs often as every week or as little as a final project.

Lesson #2: Gaming and Geology?

As someone who is first entering her teaching program, it was very strange to hear my professor introduce the idea of having a gaming console in the classroom. My first thought was, "I'm going to be an earth science teacher, how can a gaming console have any relevance to what I'm going to teach?". Well, that's when I did some web research. Here's what I found:

I stumbled upon a great web article titled "Geology In Video Games" and that's when it occurred to me; the reason I was having trouble linking consoles with Earth Science is because most console games have a very poor, if any, grasp on real-world geology! Realistic erosional features are nonexistent, resource distribution is laughable, and granite seems to be the universe's only type of rock. 

http://geoheritagescience.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/skyrimpost.jpg

However, there is hope. A blog post entitled "The Geology of Skyrim: Project Impossible?" mentions plans for a potential mod (modification) for the game that would allow players to become geologists. Great huh? And this isn't the only thing out there like this. Fans have also developed geologic maps of both Middle Earth and Westeros (kudos if you can name both fandoms). So maybe the outlook isn't so bleak after all.

The reason I am so excited about this is because gaming platforms like the Wii and Kinect are great tools for interactive learning. This means that you can potentially take classroom concepts and apply them to simulated "real-world" experiences. However, until more of these developments become available, it will be difficult to find an excuse to assign Skyrim for homework. 

P.S. Bungie, this is officially your next assignment. You heard me.

Lesson #1: All Students Are Not Created Equal

Q: How are students different? What do we need to do for them (that was not done for us)?

A: Well, first of all, not all people are alike. We know this. So why do we treat students like a bunch of clones? In most classrooms, there is no system of diversification. There is ONE lesson plan with ONE set of assignments with ONE schedule of due dates that every student is expected to complete satisfactorily. How can we expect this type of system to work when each student learns differently and at a different pace? As teachers, we cannot expect a “cookie cutter” approach to learning to work. Instead, we need to give our students options; we need to loosen control over how they learn and merely control what they learn. By measuring achievement in a more free form way, instead of offering only one route to success, students will be happier and more motivated to learn on their own. Skeptical? Try it. I'm sure you will be amazed at the results.