Pecha Kucha Video
Pecha Kucha Slides
Pecha Kucha Rubric
A central theme throughout this course has been the importance of understanding the ‘why’ behind our practice as educators. The day to day hustle of being a teacher can often cause us to neglect reflective processes, which can negatively affect our practice in the classroom. Having just finished my first year as an English Language Arts teacher for a 6th and 7th grade emergent bilingual population, my ‘why’ is tested daily. Juggling the various roles of teacher, mentor, counselor, and conflict negotiator, while attending professional development and master’s level courses, is a tiring day to day existence. Once I am at home, sitting down to reflect on my day and practice takes the back-burner to shutting my brain off for at least an hour, before going to bed in order to repeat the process over again. Like Sinek says in his TED Talk, knowing your ‘why’ is pivotal to having others buy into your messaging. If I want my students to be engaged in the learning process, I must convey my ‘why’ to them in a way that is authentic and encourages them to take risks. Thankfully, this class has allowed me the space and time to reflect on my hectic year in order to reconnect to the ‘why’ behind my service as a teacher.
In order to understand my ‘why’, I must think about my formative years growing up in San Diego, California. In addition to living in a conservative city, my family was equally as conservative and religious as our community. In middle school, I began to realize that I was gay, which created internal conflict as I existed at school and at home. While I was able to build and maintain positive relationships with family and friends, I was forced to conceal aspects of my identity that were not the dominant norm. I was cautious in all of my interactions, being sure to not let others catch on to my ‘secret’. This created a wall between myself and my community, as my community’s message to me was that my identity was not something to be valued or be proud of. As an adult, I’ve reflected on what would have made my experiences growing up in this environment more positive. Another person to talk to? Someone that shared affinity with my identity that would be able to answer questions?
These questions I ask myself are the foundation for the ‘why’ behind my work as an educator. In order for learning to happen, the basic needs of safety, compassion, diversity and inclusion must be met by the educator. For these reasons, I believe that students learn best when the teacher cultivates a compassionate culture in their classroom that fosters deep and meaningful relationships with students. In reflecting on the SCWAAMP identities we learned about in class, I only have one non-dominant identity marker. Realizing how much this identity marker has affected me, I must acknowledge the privilege that I continue to have. Students in my class have several intersecting aspects of their identities that are not messaged as valuable in our society. If society tells them they are not valued than I, as their educator, must do all that I can in order to value and uphold their unique identities in my classroom.
This leads to the problem that I hope to tackle through my digital project: How do I utilize the power of technology to cultivate compassionate and meaningful relationships in my classroom? Like Wesch, I want to build an environment in my class that encourages students to connect with each other and with me as their educator. Throughout this past year, I have done my best to cultivate this climate. Through my actions, speech and classroom signage, I try to message the importance of inclusion every day. When students enter my room, it is impossible for them to enter without passing this sign or acknowledging the flags throughout my room. This messaging in my classroom is one small step anyone can take in order to make students feel safe and welcome. Though I have done my best to build a personal relationship with all my students, there are some that I acknowledge are less meaningful than I would have hoped, whether that was due to my own fault or due to particularly introverted students. Reflecting on my childhood, I was that introverted student who did not talk to my teacher unless they talked to me. How can I continue teaching, knowing that I may have neglected relationship building with someone that is a reflection of my younger self? I never want a student to leave my classroom feeling as if they were not valued, which is the basis for my digital project: I wanted to design a website for my classroom in which I can learn about my students in order to support relationship building and meaningful learning.
Creating a website is something that I have never tried before, nor have I found a need for it prior to this class. Growing up, I was constantly plugged into technology. Playing video games and interacting online was my way to authentically present myself and communicate my true identity without the fear of judgement from those I knew personally. I am the youth that Prensky refers to as a ‘digital native’, as much of my time in adolescents was spent building and using the technological skills he describes. Despite my tech-savviness, my teaching practice is currently techno-traditionalist, meaning I use technology proficiently but in order to accomplish traditional classroom tasks. The Summit Platform my school uses almost forces teachers to, at the least, become technocrats bordering on traditionalists. I am hoping that this website is my first step towards becoming a techno-constructivist, in which I engage students in ways that are not possible without technology.
In order to create my website, I used a combination of Google Suite tools, specifically Sites, Forms, and Sheets. I have sparingly used Google Forms in the past, but I am very familiar with Sheets as I often use this in my classroom to keep track of participation and work completion. This was, however, my first time using Google Sites. I found the platform incredibly intuitive and was quickly creating my own online space for myself and my students. My main goals of this website was to create a homebase for my class, where students can read about our classroom values, learn about myself, access resources that affirm their identities, and provide me with valuable data I can use to continue building meaningful relationships with all students.
The first component of my website is a Daily Check-In Google Form. Through this form, I can gather data about my students and how they are feeling socially, emotionally and even physically. The form asks students how they slept, if they had good breakfasts/lunches and offers them a list of emotions to pick from to let me know how they are feeling about being in school. If they want to include more information they feel I need to know, I have an additional ‘extra question’ space they can write in. These responses are automatically sent over to a Google Sheet, which I conditionally formatted to highlight the most important information. If a student responded negatively to all the responses, they will be highlighted in red in order to flag to me that they are not having a great day. I can use this to help guide my interactions with students, knowing whether a student is just having an off day or has been consistently off for a month, is valuable information I can use to help them succeed in class. The second component of my website is a simple Google Form for questions, in the event that a student has something to ask that is either unrelated to class, or if I did not get a chance to respond to their query in class. The final component of my website is a feedback form for myself. I intend to continue being a reflective teacher, regardless of the classes I am taking to further my education. By offering students a chance to express their voice and concerns regarding the classroom environment, they can do so using this form. I will use their responses to shape my practice and continue my reflection beyond this course. I believe that this use of technology is bordering on the line between techno-traditionalist and techno-constructivist. Asking your students for feedback and check-in questions is not a new practice, but I believe the use of this website and form shifts what that looks like in the day to day. Simply asking students how they are before class begins does not net much meaningful data, unless students are visibly upset or happy about something. By having a quick and efficient tool for students to share how they are feeling, the way these check-ins look and are acted upon is significantly shifted.
Ultimately, this class has affirmed my love for technology and learning. Thankfully, next year teaching I will not have much on my metaphorical plate in regards to work outside of class. I will be finished with my Masters and Certification courses, which added significant baggage to my practice as an educator in the form of papers, readings and meetings. I plan to utilize these learnings to make larger impacts in my classroom in order to affirm students and close achievement gaps.
Pecha Kucha Slides
Pecha Kucha Rubric
A central theme throughout this course has been the importance of understanding the ‘why’ behind our practice as educators. The day to day hustle of being a teacher can often cause us to neglect reflective processes, which can negatively affect our practice in the classroom. Having just finished my first year as an English Language Arts teacher for a 6th and 7th grade emergent bilingual population, my ‘why’ is tested daily. Juggling the various roles of teacher, mentor, counselor, and conflict negotiator, while attending professional development and master’s level courses, is a tiring day to day existence. Once I am at home, sitting down to reflect on my day and practice takes the back-burner to shutting my brain off for at least an hour, before going to bed in order to repeat the process over again. Like Sinek says in his TED Talk, knowing your ‘why’ is pivotal to having others buy into your messaging. If I want my students to be engaged in the learning process, I must convey my ‘why’ to them in a way that is authentic and encourages them to take risks. Thankfully, this class has allowed me the space and time to reflect on my hectic year in order to reconnect to the ‘why’ behind my service as a teacher.
In order to understand my ‘why’, I must think about my formative years growing up in San Diego, California. In addition to living in a conservative city, my family was equally as conservative and religious as our community. In middle school, I began to realize that I was gay, which created internal conflict as I existed at school and at home. While I was able to build and maintain positive relationships with family and friends, I was forced to conceal aspects of my identity that were not the dominant norm. I was cautious in all of my interactions, being sure to not let others catch on to my ‘secret’. This created a wall between myself and my community, as my community’s message to me was that my identity was not something to be valued or be proud of. As an adult, I’ve reflected on what would have made my experiences growing up in this environment more positive. Another person to talk to? Someone that shared affinity with my identity that would be able to answer questions?
These questions I ask myself are the foundation for the ‘why’ behind my work as an educator. In order for learning to happen, the basic needs of safety, compassion, diversity and inclusion must be met by the educator. For these reasons, I believe that students learn best when the teacher cultivates a compassionate culture in their classroom that fosters deep and meaningful relationships with students. In reflecting on the SCWAAMP identities we learned about in class, I only have one non-dominant identity marker. Realizing how much this identity marker has affected me, I must acknowledge the privilege that I continue to have. Students in my class have several intersecting aspects of their identities that are not messaged as valuable in our society. If society tells them they are not valued than I, as their educator, must do all that I can in order to value and uphold their unique identities in my classroom.
This leads to the problem that I hope to tackle through my digital project: How do I utilize the power of technology to cultivate compassionate and meaningful relationships in my classroom? Like Wesch, I want to build an environment in my class that encourages students to connect with each other and with me as their educator. Throughout this past year, I have done my best to cultivate this climate. Through my actions, speech and classroom signage, I try to message the importance of inclusion every day. When students enter my room, it is impossible for them to enter without passing this sign or acknowledging the flags throughout my room. This messaging in my classroom is one small step anyone can take in order to make students feel safe and welcome. Though I have done my best to build a personal relationship with all my students, there are some that I acknowledge are less meaningful than I would have hoped, whether that was due to my own fault or due to particularly introverted students. Reflecting on my childhood, I was that introverted student who did not talk to my teacher unless they talked to me. How can I continue teaching, knowing that I may have neglected relationship building with someone that is a reflection of my younger self? I never want a student to leave my classroom feeling as if they were not valued, which is the basis for my digital project: I wanted to design a website for my classroom in which I can learn about my students in order to support relationship building and meaningful learning.
Creating a website is something that I have never tried before, nor have I found a need for it prior to this class. Growing up, I was constantly plugged into technology. Playing video games and interacting online was my way to authentically present myself and communicate my true identity without the fear of judgement from those I knew personally. I am the youth that Prensky refers to as a ‘digital native’, as much of my time in adolescents was spent building and using the technological skills he describes. Despite my tech-savviness, my teaching practice is currently techno-traditionalist, meaning I use technology proficiently but in order to accomplish traditional classroom tasks. The Summit Platform my school uses almost forces teachers to, at the least, become technocrats bordering on traditionalists. I am hoping that this website is my first step towards becoming a techno-constructivist, in which I engage students in ways that are not possible without technology.
In order to create my website, I used a combination of Google Suite tools, specifically Sites, Forms, and Sheets. I have sparingly used Google Forms in the past, but I am very familiar with Sheets as I often use this in my classroom to keep track of participation and work completion. This was, however, my first time using Google Sites. I found the platform incredibly intuitive and was quickly creating my own online space for myself and my students. My main goals of this website was to create a homebase for my class, where students can read about our classroom values, learn about myself, access resources that affirm their identities, and provide me with valuable data I can use to continue building meaningful relationships with all students.
The first component of my website is a Daily Check-In Google Form. Through this form, I can gather data about my students and how they are feeling socially, emotionally and even physically. The form asks students how they slept, if they had good breakfasts/lunches and offers them a list of emotions to pick from to let me know how they are feeling about being in school. If they want to include more information they feel I need to know, I have an additional ‘extra question’ space they can write in. These responses are automatically sent over to a Google Sheet, which I conditionally formatted to highlight the most important information. If a student responded negatively to all the responses, they will be highlighted in red in order to flag to me that they are not having a great day. I can use this to help guide my interactions with students, knowing whether a student is just having an off day or has been consistently off for a month, is valuable information I can use to help them succeed in class. The second component of my website is a simple Google Form for questions, in the event that a student has something to ask that is either unrelated to class, or if I did not get a chance to respond to their query in class. The final component of my website is a feedback form for myself. I intend to continue being a reflective teacher, regardless of the classes I am taking to further my education. By offering students a chance to express their voice and concerns regarding the classroom environment, they can do so using this form. I will use their responses to shape my practice and continue my reflection beyond this course. I believe that this use of technology is bordering on the line between techno-traditionalist and techno-constructivist. Asking your students for feedback and check-in questions is not a new practice, but I believe the use of this website and form shifts what that looks like in the day to day. Simply asking students how they are before class begins does not net much meaningful data, unless students are visibly upset or happy about something. By having a quick and efficient tool for students to share how they are feeling, the way these check-ins look and are acted upon is significantly shifted.
Ultimately, this class has affirmed my love for technology and learning. Thankfully, next year teaching I will not have much on my metaphorical plate in regards to work outside of class. I will be finished with my Masters and Certification courses, which added significant baggage to my practice as an educator in the form of papers, readings and meetings. I plan to utilize these learnings to make larger impacts in my classroom in order to affirm students and close achievement gaps.
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