Time vs. Soul?

I'm guessing we are all having some version of this experience with our students in the placements.

We see the ways our cooperating teachers plan what they teach, adapt according to how things go, make sure they are reaching all of their students the best they can given the time they have. I am very impressed with the flexibility and intelligence these teachers are bringing to their work.

I also see the students' innate and powerful curiosity about the things and people in their environment, their willingness to dive deeply into what interests them, and how they so often let their hearts and souls show on their faces. I'm studying how teachers try to balance the limitations of time and resources in the classrooms with the need to address these kids' soulfulness and depth.

Recently when we had a guest teacher at our placement, a kid was finished with a dictation they were being given, and it was important that the other children have a quiet atmosphere in which to finish theirs. The boy was whispering and laughing with his neighbor, so I asked him to come over to a side  table. I gave him some paper and a pencil and told him to draw what the dictation sentence is about.

He started in, and did not look up until most of the other kids were out the door for recess. I was amazed at how quickly and how deeply he entered into this spontaneous project.

 If even experienced, talented teachers barely have enough time to teach their students what they need to teach them, I want to learn the efficiencies that make depth of experience and personal connection with kids possible, as often as possible. I am noting them as I see them, but I would love others' observations about what they are seeing along these lines.

Ok, now I want to own an ipad mini.

I've been waiting for this since the quarter started. I could see that I was eventually going to figure out a way to get a personal relationship with this ipad, but I found it yesterday, and I'm soooo happy.

I've been wanting to find a way to do/learn/play with animation that made sense for my needs. I have been interested in "serious" puppetry for a long time, and what I've done with kids is sort of a hybrid of animation and puppetry. I believe I might have used the absolutely most labor intensive way possible of doing animation during the summer ("Oedipus the Snowman," still available on YouTube). It was ridiculous, ridiculous. But I loved it, too, and the potential for teaching using animation.

Saturday after I got the istopmotion app, I tried it out by trial and error,  and it's pretty intuitive, so I figured it out pretty quickly.

The reason I'm this happy is that my brain has been ready and waiting for something like this app, so it snapped into place like a missing puzzle piece.

Wish me luck.

Facing Technology

"Learning is amplified by the number of people who are collaborating, participating, communicating and creating. The learning is not about the technology tools, but what students can DO with them to learn in new ways. The learning is about authentic tasks, that allows students to contribute in a individualized and personalized manner to make them realize that their work matters in the real world.

(http://langwitches.org/blog/2013/01/27/learning-in-the-modern-classroom/)

I chose the image at the top of the page because it is beautiful, impressive, and to me, kind of daunting in its complexity. How do you enter this building? How do you get from place to place in it? There are colorful, interesting-looking things in there; what are they?
I'm thinking of this as a metaphor for encountering all of the tools of technology for learning, teaching, and communicating. There is so much potential. An overwhelming amount of potential?

·      When I read Grow Your Network: Become a Detective, it motivated me to just start following more people on twitter. They are fenced into their own columns in tweetdeck; I will be tending them for a while and seeing if they fit me. So that is one nice entry point for me into the Information Entity.

I chose the quote above because it is a nice summary of what we have been learning this quarter, the importance of the students' connection with others, with the world, and with themselves as learners and citizens. It's clear that technology for technology's sake is not very useful, but it's good to be aware that some people may not be so discerning about the specific uses of these tools; we should watch out for that ourselves. I am most interested right now in the potential of technology to allow our students to use visuals and audio in their learning.

I also have a question about students, teachers, and technology: how can we make the best, most meaningful use of these tools to connect with other people?

Non-Googleable Questions?