Connections to Classrooms

My birthday! Celebrations started today with everyone singing “Happy Birthday” – this group is talented at singing too! Past memories of my birthdays include sharing cakes with my brother (Craig’s birthday is June 9th), mowing, raking and baling hay (we always had hay down on my birthday!), playing a high school softball game, or teaching a summer course at ISU. Actually, this was my first birthday outside of Iowa! What a birthday to remember!

Marvin, Kira, and Andrea from Bank Street College joined us today to share their work with K-12 classrooms. It’s always stimulating to hear about the new and innovative projects being implemented at Bank Street. The latest, Project ConTEXT, is no exception. This is their ‘next step’ in strengthening their teacher education program; the project focuses on working on action research projects with classroom teachers. The end result is improving student teaching placements, so their students work with technology-using teachers. What a great concept! As with any innovative project, time and patience will be needed because as we saw today Project ConTEXT has much promise.

My group (Andrea, Wendy, Alice, Rick, Deb, Diane, Trevor, Margaret, Pat and me) went to PS 234 – the Independent School only blocks away from Ground Zero. What an experience! Part of the group visited 1st grade classrooms to observe students and the teachers. The rest of the group visited with two teachers, Ellen and Jenny, who both participated in the Project ConTEXT. What struck me immediately was how much they both appreciated the opportunity to participate in such a project and the support they received from Andrea and others to conduct the action research project. Both projects that the teachers described (Revolutionary War iMovie Project and a Reading Project) are great examples of curriculum integration projects that are focused on the learners. I was reminded once again today of the need to listen to those ‘in the field’ and why teacher education extends beyond our own classroom – beyond our university or college. These teachers’ voices expressed an enthusiasm for trying new things and for studying what was done, but required a support structure to really make it happen. Without that support both indicated they probably wouldn’t have used the technology in their classrooms. How many other teachers (our own graduates) feel the same way? What more can we do to support our graduates once they are in the classroom?

The afternoon ended with Kira and Andrea describing a technology course they have designed for students at Bank Street. The course is centered around a mini curriculum unit. The description and activity that followed (virtual tour of the subway) made me reflect on our own technology course at ISU and how we might model the idea of ‘technology integration’ in a much more constructivist way. There’s always curriculum revision and renewal that is needed.

What a birthday to remember!

The Best of Storytelling

Ann and I just returned from seeing “The Lion King” on Broadway – a perfect example of the power of storytelling! I think there was a bit of a ‘digital’ aspect to this story too! Even though I had heard this story before, this production illustrates that a good story can be told over and over again – one never tires of listening to a good story. I was fascinated with every aspect of “The Lion King” – the point, the dramatic question, the emotional content, the gift of the voices, the power of the music and the story’s pace. In fact, those are the elements of digital storytelling that we discussed in our workshop today!

It is always a pleasure to share the concept of digital storytelling with educators. I really wanted it to be a positive experience for everyone because I believe this is such a powerful use of technology. As each participant worked diligently to publish their story about New York University in the summer, I observed learners who were engaged with the learning task – telling and sharing information using multimedia. We can definitely celebrate the published stories! It was also fun to share some of my students’ projects with everyone. One tends to forget the good work students do each semester.

I never tire of hearing ‘our story’ of faculty development. Ann has done an exceptional job of implementing a mentoring program that is very successful in preparing faculty to use technology and an even better job of disseminating the model to others. I’m very anxious to read more about everyone’s thoughts on this topic in the blogs.

Getting Started...

It’s exciting to be working with a group of teacher educators who are so excited about learning! The ‘context’ for the week was set early with our introductions. It’s obvious that each individual brings a very unique set of experiences to the workshop topic – technology in teacher education. Experiences and expertise that will help each of us learn more and deeper about this critical topic. Ann’s comment, “It’s really not about the technology, it’s all about teacher education,” is something to always keep in mind as one should not get caught up in technology’s bells and whistles. It is still about doing the best we can to prepare teachers, and in my opinion that includes using technology in classrooms to effectively engage learners of all ages.

Some of the comments shared throughout the day remind me of the “reality checks’ that are needed as we prepare students for the “reality” of the classroom. Access, compatibility, time and accountability are issues that still exist everywhere. None of them are easy to overcome. But, I must continue to help my students examine possible solutions – they must anticipate change and confront the challenges.

It’s obvious that I will learn a tremendous amount from my colleagues this week. I’m anxious to learn what others are doing in areas like faculty development, portfolio assessment, K-12 collaborations, and online learning. It will be important to facilitate this workshop so others are comfortable ‘sharing their stories’ with everyone and to continue this dialogue beyond Friday.

Learning Blogger was a highlight for me today! I have not used blogging in any of my courses, so I was really looking forward to learning it with everyone else. And I did! Typically, my students are not very reflective about what they learn, what they see, and what they think about in courses and K-12 classrooms. Using Blogger or a similar tool may promote the development of more reflective practitioners. Blogging has many possibilities! I’ll be anxious to hear what others think and how they might use this tool in their own instructional settings.

I hope the week doesn’t go too fast – there is a lot to share and learn!