http://youtu.be/HKhfghBl-dk

To be inspired…take time to listen to Rascal Flats…Forever Changed…just the music and words…everyone needs to be Forever Changed

If we have eyes to see, ears to hear, minds that seek…we can find.  The fellowship partnerships that I’ve made with both of my mentors, the materials I’ve found in my research, and the professional development provided for me this summer has all created a “forever change” in my personality, my professional practice, and the way I approach preparing lessons for my teachers and students.

There was not one specific “aha” for me but many “wow – this is so cool” moments that I can’t wait to share with my colleagues at school and the children at Fuquay-Varina Elementary school.

I’m going to be presenting at the World View Conference at Enloe High School on August 13th with the North Carolina Council on Economic Education and have prepared a Smart board lesson.  Using the iSmartphone video that I attached a few posts ago, I’ve created a lesson that will provide resources and materials to teach the economic principals of productive resources, world/international trade, specialization, division of labor, and entrepreneurship. If you are interested in viewing it to use in your class, just let me know and I’ll send it in an email.

http://youtu.be/IYO3tOqDISE

If you loved iSmartphone…here is the original …. ipencil.  I’m including the wikipedia excerpt to share that the thinking of “global” economy didn’t just occur in the 21st century with the Smartphone.

This is another example of connecting my fellowship with the curriculum and a great example of how technology supports student learning and broadens our perspective, no matter what the topic!

“I, Pencil” is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

“I, Pencil” is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read” and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled “I… Pencil” in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

It’s an interesting concept to consider…what came first the chicken or the egg?  When thinking about the question will the Common Core/Essential Standards influence the use of technology for learning, I think about the chicken and the egg. One cannot exist without the other.  It wasn’t the Common Core standards that prompted using technology for teaching and learning but the benchmarks for each standard imply that students will be given the opportunity to discover, through the use of technology, the content being taught.

Curriculum is curriculum. As educators we don’t have a choice of what to teach but we do have a choice how to teach. The learning goals create the basis for the student experience that each teacher creates.  The learning experience needs to include periods of discovery and research which is directly related to the use of technology.

Here’s a quote from Columbia University that articulates beautifully the ongoing challenges education has regarding the delivery of instruction.

The Department of Curriculum and Teaching, established in 1938, was the first department in the U.S. devoted to the scholarly study of problems of curriculum and teaching across all subjects and all levels of schooling, from early childhood through the education of teachers and supervisors. Broad questions about the nature, purpose, and design of curriculum and about the theory and practice of teaching remain at the core of all department programs. Addressing these questions in contemporary times calls for critical analyses of the ways in which curriculum, teaching, and schooling contribute to social inequalities, and a commitment to educating for social justice. 

Now we add the technology piece. I believe that technology always enhances my research in finding materials for my lessons AND tremendously increases the active participation of my students. Therefore, no matter what the curriculum, I will always seek the benefits and resources offered by the various tools of technology.  To me they walk hand in hand.

The Common Core standards lay a beautiful foundation for the future of education and, in my humble opinion, significantly enhance the opportunities to use technology.

Bring on the world. Bring on the World Wide Web! Bring on Learning!

http://youtu.be/IYO3tOqDISE

If you loved iSmartphone…here is the original …. ipencil.  I’m including the wikipedia excerpt to share that this thinking didn’t just occur in the 21st century.

This is another example of connecting my fellowship with the curriculum and a great example of how technology supports student learning and broadens our perspective, no matter what the topic!

“I, Pencil” is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

“I, Pencil” is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read” and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled “I… Pencil” in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

I thought you all might enjoy this latest connection made from my fellowship time at the North Carolina Council on Economic Education.  Teaching economics and discovering how we need things from all over our world (global awareness) to make something that we use everyday! Hit the Target again…Bullseye! Plus the kids are adorable…and I’m creating resources for elementary age students!

Enjoy!  Please submit any feedback or let me know if you are going to use this video in your class!

As a math coach it’s natural for me to always, I mean “ALWAYS,” find a math connection to anything. So to address the question – what is one way you can connect your summer externship experience to your classroom curriculum – I immediately think of angles.

So, an acute angle is less than 90 degrees and creates the shape of the point of an arrow. So for my first connection will make use of an acute angle pointing to the “bulls eye” target.

During my externship at the NCCEE (North Carolina Council on Economic Education) I found a publication entitled, “Teaching Economics using Children’s Literature.”  You can imagine my excitement!  My financial literacy project asks teachers to set up a mini economy to teach economics but many teachers in elementary school don’t have resources to teach basic economics. Teaching Economics using Children’s Literature is an  “angle” that “hits the target – Bulls Eye!” How about teaching students basic economics with terminology like unit production, specialization, assembly line, division of labor, interdependence, and productivity using a children’s picture book! How about using “The Goat in the Rug.” The lesson in the book provides teachers with handouts and key questions to ask students so they learn the difference between a good and a service…”acute angle to the target” again!  How about asking students if the main character Glenmae specialized or used unit production. Fascinating!

Okay now to the 90 degree right angle! Notice how the angle produces a direct connection “up” and also produces a square with four corners.  When I teach a math lesson, at the end of the lesson for closure, I ask the students to write statements in their math journals with the symbols triangle, circle, and a square.  The square symbolizes “I’m secure…I’m ‘square’ with understanding this concept.” So my 90 degree…higher order thinking straight to the top…square connection is what I’ve learned about The Stock Market Game.  The Stock Market Game is an online game that teachers can use to set up teams of students in their classroom about investing in the stock market.  Each team of students has $100,000 to invest. It’s designed to have students read about companies that they are interested in purchasing stock AND they buy and sell their stock for a 9 week period of time…..economics and MATH!!! I love it….higher order thinking…reading…writing…calculating…collaboration…and 10 other things I know will happen for the students!!! I’ve registered three of my fifth grade teachers to have this for their students “FREE” of charge!!! My externship with the North Carolina Council on Economic Education brought me this too!

Now for my 180 degree angle…you know the straight line….

The “segment” provides the foundation leading both left and right.  I love this symbolism for my project and the curriculum that I’m writingbecause I’m excited about where the students

are going to take the foundational skills that they learn about economics and apply it to their learning. Impacting student learning with well thought out curriculum is certainly of great importance but my passion is teaching life skills and providing students an authentic way to “invest” in their own education. What I’m gaining from my fellowship is meeting the needs of my personal passion AND the economic standards for grades K-5 are well on their way to become part of Making Global Cents! 

Would any of my KF colleagues be interested in implementing my curriculum in their classrooms this year?  Maybe my soon to be PHD friend would like to join me. 🙂

Based on your experiences, what are the greatest challenges for leveraging technology to empower learning in your classroom and school?

I love to look up the meaning of words.  Leverage is one of those words that has such a powerful definition I thought it would be fun to include its meaning in my answer to the question regarding the challenges using technology in the classroom and school environment.

A lever is one of our simple machines. The mere presence of a lever, which is a rigid bar that pivots at one point to move a second point by a simple force applied.  Here is a tool that uses two levers to make the process of using pliers much easier.

 Now what would we do without pliers? 

Another meaning of the word leverage is the power or ability to influence people, events, decisions, etc. because of the “advantage” “strength” “clout” or “pull” in a negotiation or discussion.

Using technology in the classroom certainly influences the outcome of lessons when used effectively.  So, the question is not whether technology empowers learning but whether schools and students have equal access and whether the schools in Wake County or in the state of North Carolina have the bandwidth great enough to allow all users to successfully use the internet. 

When using the word leverage or leveraging as a verb, m favorite meaning is stated as such: to use (a quality or advantage) to obtain a desired effect or result. 

Whenever teachers use technology in a lesson the desired result is to enhance the lesson in a way that allows students interaction with the topic in order to engage student learning.  So, the challenge is tools of technology and bandwidth access.

The school that I am at has at least two iPads in every classroom and at least 4 working desktop pc’s.  The ratio of student to pc/iPad is one for every 6 students.  Now you know, in an elementary school setting sharing is often difficult and sharing also doesn’t provide for individual learning at an individual pace.  My dream classroom would have a one to one initiative.  I know they exist in our beautiful state and I hope to provide enough “reasons” to require a one to one ratio beginning in a 5^th grade classroom at FVES.

The challenges leveraging technology in the classroom exist in the equipment not in the resources.  Once a classroom has functioning tools of technology with enough to give each student their own, the advancement of using technology can be realized. 

I’d love to hear from a colleague that does have a one to one ratio what the challenges are in leveraging. What challenges exist when you do have the tool in the hands of students?