A reflection on blogging

I don't think I would have been able to keep up with this blog if I hadn't set aside to work on it every week or two. Open posts were the hardest for some reason, because whatever thoughts I felt like putting down also had to be coherent and polished. Luckily, being a grad student is all I think about right now so my thoughts revolve around education and trying to gain teacher-wisdom by being a student.

The blogging project was effective in that I recognize the challenges of using a blog as a course assignment. It's one thing to hear, "Oh, use blogs in your classroom!" but another to experience, "Write a blog consistently and think about how you can use it in your own classrooms." It's been fun clicking through my bookmarks folder of classmates' blogs and seeing what other people are doing and thinking. It really sort of became a digital ice breaker because I found out that some of my classmates like the same tv shows that I do, and it really made me more aware of who is in my class. Of course, this all depends on the atmosphere of the classroom. I felt safe there and I feel safe here, in my blog. 

I will continue to use this blog as a receptacle for my education thoughts, and I'm glad that I had an opportunity to create a blog in a structured environment.

The Digital Writing Workshop (T. Hicks)

As you may have guessed from my last entry, I have just finished reading The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks (available here through Amazon). Chapter seven was a summary of the book, which highlighted some of the key messages throughout the book, such as "Teach the writer, not the writing," and emphasizing the importance of choice in student motivation. The rest of the book, however, goes into great detail about the technical considerations when starting a digital writing workshop.

For some, this book can function as the technical guide on how to choose or start a blog, track changes, and collaborate digitally. As a regular internet user who feels pretty tech savvy, I wish more of the book had been like chapter seven, which focused more on classroom life. Maybe this is because I'm pre-service, but I'm really more interested in how to orchestrate 30 kids trying to write compose 100 different things on 8 computers. Hicks has the answer to that, of course, which is to create table clusters (they encourage collaboration) and surround students with traditional writing tools (because the mind needs a break from writing sometimes). The physical space is, I feel, as important as the virtual space for digital writing workshops. I find it difficult to function on a laptop if I'm in a noisy area or in a car, but if I can sit down on my bed with a halo of notes and papers, I'm ready to write. Similarly, students need a space that fosters the digital writing spirit but also consists of more than a laptop with a web browser open.

The pre-service status caused quite a bit of anxiety when I read this book. The answers are all in there, but I have no experience to apply the answers to. Thanks to Hicks, I know that there are some great tools to help students manage their citations (a tedious task that used to involve index cards and a battered, tear-stained MLA handbook) and that, if I know where to look, I can track student revisions as a method of formative assessment. In the literal sense, this book offers complete instructions on how to use digital tools with writing instruction. What I wish there had been more of, however, is instructions on how to incorporate digital tools into a variety of topics or units.

A great resource in this book, however, is the inclusion of real life lesson plans, rubrics, and student work.  Appendix 1 is particularly rich with practical uses for wikis, step-by-step guidance on how much class time to spend on digital writing, and the technical issues of ownership. In an ideal world, the Appendix would be three times as long as Hicks wrote, but I am nonetheless grateful for the shared knowledge.

The most important instruction that Hicks imparts is to stumble forward into the unknown and learn along the way. By the time a truly thorough guide on digital writing could be published, the technology it discusses would be stale. Learn as you go, this book teaches, and make the tasks authentic, interesting, and valuable.

The Digital Writing Workshop - Chapter Seven notes

We Love Our Bread, We Love Our Butter

I made bread! The alleged "5 Minute Artisan Bread" that I found on Pinterest took about 20 minutes for me to mix. The yeast took at least 7 minutes to foam up and it took another 10 minutes for my weak arms to stir the thick dough "vigorously" enough to smooth everything into something bakeable. (I ended up adding water and putting the bowl on a chair while mixing. Short and weak! What a struggle.) From there, most of the recipe called for waiting. Wait 30 minutes for bread to rise. Make an impossibly smooth sphere, put it in a pot and wait 30 minutes for it to rise some more. If anything, this was an exercise in patience. I peeked at the yeast while it was foaming. I peeked at the dough while it was rising under a tea towel. I peeked under the lid when it was rising again. I peeked in the oven even though the pot was too tall to look into. 

The bread came out perfect. It had dill and garlic and the crust was just right. It was hearty and delicious on its own. I always enjoy baking from scratch but I felt particularly proud of my wonderful bread. Bread is a humble staple but always was too big for me to try. I'm glad I did. My bread was delicious and there's something really exciting about making a tangible, edible thing. 

Sick.

I picked up some sort of illness while at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival on Sunday. I am struggling through day seven of being sick. I mean REALLY sick. I have spent a week in bed and have kept down only two or three meals. As such, I have thought very little about anything other than the following:

1. Blankets
2. Pillows
3. Trashcan
4. Medication
5. Ice Packs
6. Hot Water Bottles
7. Funeral arrangements, because I can't see a future beyond being sick.

Every hour is a gamble. Am I getting better? Are my insides still trying to become outsides? I get sick often enough that I know I can't be in a car or read off a screen when I'm not well. Really the only thing I can do when I'm sick is make sad ghost noises from under 5 quilts on the couch. 

It is super simple to make infographics through Piktochart!

Tech Exploration: Using Technology to Amplify Instruction

I am a resident of the Internet. My first e-mail address was created in 1997, and it was through Juno. The internet wasn't terribly scary at that time, so I didn't have much supervision. As a result, I responded to a lot junk mail. Though I am a resident, I am also somewhat of a lazy citizen... I recognize the names of places but I haven't necessarily gone in and looked around.

Three favorite Tech Tools to Enhance Student Learning:

1. VoiceThread: VoiceThread is new to me, but I can see the website's appeal for educators. The site allows an individual conduct a face-to-face meeting through a website. The library section of the website features user-submitted successful VoiceThreads that can be watched by anyone. I think the library would be the most useful part of VoiceThread, since the educator accounts run about $80 and only provide with 50 student accounts (additional student accounts are $2 each, which isn't terribly expensive but students struggle to even access technology). Overall, it seems like a budding technology that might work best for post-secondary classrooms.
2. Padlet: For quick and simple interaction, Padlet allows students and teachers to create a customized board with typed notes. Students enter the short url on their phones, tablets, or computers and contribute to the discussion. My favorite feature is the export option that organizes the data in PDF or spreadsheet format. I think this would be a great way to brainstorm in and outside of class.
3. Socrative: Teachers who need quick, fun, digital assessment can use Socrative to create quizzes that are done via cellphone or computer. Socrative has an attractive interface that looks professional and secure. They offer thorough support for teachers, with details down to what students see when they access Socrative from their end. Teachers can run reports to track student performance. Teachers who are data hungry can gather a lot of information from the real-time reports that updates as students work.

My Favorite Sites for Professional Development:

1. Pinterest: Somewhere on Pinterest there is a superhuman who is creating content or compiling resources on whatever it is you keep putting off or possibly topics you've never thought about teaching. Pinterest is a pin board style website where users can search, upload, or link to content. If you're just browsing for inspiration (pinspiration!), Pinterest will show you how to make anchor charts for your classroom, give you creative project ideas, give you new ideas for classroom management, provide infographics, graphic organizers, and other printables. My favorite thing about Pinterest is that you can browse through and pin anything that looks interesting and hold on to it until you need it. [My own teaching board on Pinterest is here.]
2. Teachers Pay Teachers: Teachers Pay Teachers has free and paid lesson packs for a multitude of topics. I found this site through Pinterest and I really like how current the lesson plans are. This is a time saver for any teacher who is struggling to find an interesting angle for a unit.
3. CPALMS: Recently I downloaded the LAFS from CPALMS and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they provide "Access Points" for each standard. If you need to know what you're supposed to teach, CPALMS can tell you. If you need to know how to approach it, they can tell you that too. It's the littlest thing, but it really gets my mind working when I am thinking about how to make LAFS relevant.

Authentic Writing for Students:

• Students write all the time, they just don't recognize it and they don't want to do it for teachers. Even if an assignments reads "You're writing a newspaper article for the Hunger Games 2014!" students know that they're writing for you, the teacher. Occasionally they may be writing for other students or for themselves. Authentic writing is important for students because so much of their in-school writing seems so artificial and rehearsed. There are students who will write (and write well) for the right reason. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a challenge to write a novel in a month. For students who consider a whole novel a bit much, or those who crave a polished final product, FlipSnack, Storybird and Comic Master are template sites that allow students to create attractive writing projects. For Comic Master, students don't even need artistic skills because the site takes care of backgrounds and characters. All three will help students create a modern, professional product without exposing them to the deep dark depths of the internet where they may encounter bullying, harassment, and doxxing. 

Jane Hart and What Lies Ahead in the Teacher-Tech World

• The slideshow reflects a movement toward social education tools. In my elementary education, technology was mostly restricted to CD-ROM encyclopedias, word processing, and the occasional research on a website that was output only (A very fancy website may have had a guestbook.). Education is growing to be more of an interaction than strictly one-way instruction. Rather than keeping kids off the internet, teachers are teaching them how to use it intelligently. Moreso, they are preparing students for the work force where they'll have to know how to Google, how to write, and how to network professionally.

Bloom's Technology Taxonomy

• There is a tool available for every stage of educating students. The tricky part is finding technology that suits the needs of the unit, teacher, and students. There are new tools available every day and not all of them will be reliable or useful. Some that are easier to use for students may leave them vulnerable to the non-academic internet, but some of the more useful ones may be complicated to configure. I don't think that teachers should rely heavily on tech tools, but if it enhances a lesson and encourages students to pay attention, it is probably a good tool.

Based on the exploration done today, I've found that I am familiar with only a small subsection of the academic tools that are available. I've found some really useful tools that I'll be playing with in the future. I'm glad that I now have this annotated list of new tools, and I know that many more tools will be available in the future.

What the new season of Doctor Who is teaching me about teaching.

Artwork by luluha.deviantart

The current season of Doctor Who (Saturday nights, BBC America) is giving me a lot to think about when it comes to teaching. For the uninitiated, Doctor Who follows a humanoid Time Lord called The Doctor who travels time and space in his TARDIS, a stolen time machine disguised as a 1960s Police Box.

Much like Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, the Doctor and his companion often play the role of brain and heart. Companions function as an audience surrogate, but are often invaluable when mysteries stretch beyond reason. The Doctor's current companion is Clara Oswald, a school teacher. In the latest episode, a soldier questions Clara's qualifications to help with a dangerous mission.

Soldier Joan Blue: Are you sure you understand?
Clara: Why wouldn't I?
Soldier Joan Blue: Because this is a dangerous mission and you look like a school teacher.
Clara: I am a school teacher!

In just three episodes this season, the Doctor has thrown Clara into dangerous situations with the faith that she will be clever enough to find a way out of it, with little or no harm to others. When Clara does need guidance, however, the Doctor doesn't just set her straight... he retrains the way she thinks and approaches situations. If anything, this is the incarnation of the Doctor who teaches his companions how to think outside of the box, to ask the right questions, and to be bold when seeking the answers. Of course, the Doctor does not have all the answers. Being non-human means he lacks a certain empathy in some situations. The school teacher, however, is naturally bold and honest and has the moral authority to not just solve the mystery, but to avoid destruction and find other ways to solve problems.

The Doctor: Daleks are evil. That's what we just learned!
Clara: No, Doctor, that is not what we just learned.
...
Clara: Think about it, is that what we learned?

The Doctor teaches Clara how to think critically, but Clara teaches the Doctor how to reflect on the value of such critical thinking. When she wins him over, he is able to see what she sees, and states, "We can do better."

One thing that a school teacher and a genius alien can agree on is that the truth and knowledge are beautiful, precious things. Ideally, teachers should be the Doctor and the companion, the Sherlock and the Watson, the brain and the heart. I'd like to be the type of teacher who can send a pupil into the academic unknown and say, "You are clever! You can figure this out!" or "You're cleverer than this! We can do better!" I'd like to be the teacher who can teach students to ask the right questions, to challenge them to do better and not settle for solutions set in front of them. Good teachers teach students how to listen, how to do, and how to be strong and independent when faced with daunting tasks. 

You want weapons? We're in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room's the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!

- The Doctor 

hello, world!

Hello, all.

Welcome to my blog. My name is Aliza and I am a graduate student at UCF. I am currently earning my Masters in Teaching secondary English Language Arts Education, with ESOL endorsement. I will be using this space as a notepad for interesting education-related topics that I encounter or ponder about on my own.

I am striving to become a secondary English teacher because I believe in the value of literature and literacy. My goal is to prepare students for a life of success by giving them the knowledge and skills needed to make sense of their world.

I look forward to writing more on this blog, so please check back frequently.

- Aliza