An aside! In looking at my Teacher Evaluation Files, I realized that I had to have some thoughtful papers on assessment, present-century skills, (This is my tacit refusal to use the coined 21st Century Skills since I am already living the thirteenth year of that...and if I am not modeling those skills to students, I deserve to be fired!) and technology--all mingled with the content and best practices that I already use like oxygen and water! I took a class so that when I post blogs about Assessment, Skills, and Technology, I will truly know my stuff. So this week in class I had to evaluate the national technology standards and figure out how I will better utilize them while I better utilize futuristic skills without sacrificing content and methods! Here's what I turned in on my class blog post...
Okay, this is a simile stretch, but hey! Think symbiotic relationships you learned about in biology class. There was the sea anemone and the clown fish (pretty fix attracts big predator fish, swims for the closest sea anemone for cover, and the predator "gets it"!). Then there was the Goby fish and the shrimp! Or how about the fig trees and fruit bats? This could go on and on, but for the sake of this post, let's think flowering plants and pollinators (bees and flies).
Humor me.
We know content! We know best practices! That's been drummed into our heads like nutrients into soil! So where in the world do we cram in technology standards and the present century's skills? Could that be why we are sort of overwhelmed? We had an overabundance of the first two before we started this class.
It is easy to look upon those skills and the technology standards as parasites that will eat away at content and/or best practices--especially if we are resistant. However, as gardeners who plant knowledge and futuristic skills right along with common sense and practical everyday applications as we know them, we come up with a rather interesting hybrid. That brings us to an interesting problem where we as the gardener-educators have to consider adaptations and in a number of potential environments.
As I look at the project I've been working on, I really do wish I had seen the Wiggins/McTighe model at the BEGINNING and worked backwards! The irony of that is not wasted. I get it. When I look at what I started out with and then revised, I wonder if I need to start over again. It's a learning curve, and that's how it goes sometimes--practice more so you don't strike out in the end (because you refused to consider the likely flaws in your original plan(s).
Ultimately, I have to address this week's question. How do I see the present century's skills set and the national technology standards coming into play in my unit of study/final project? I could pretend I am certain at this moment, but you would catch me in that resolution. We all know this is a metamorphic process of discovery. The new eyeglasses and the magnifying glass I brought from my classroom are by nature only cosmetic help. The only way I'm going to know for sure is to roll up my cotton shirt sleeves, take a seat in the office rolly chair I've moved to the kitchen table, and embrace Grant Wiggins's idea of planning. [Enter the irony. I cannot stand the new textbook I was given, and he is the editor. My kids are not equipped to handle the book and its mission. Perhaps when the kids who are in elementary school arrive in a few years, that will change. Hope so. It’s a very pretty book that has Wiggins’s methods steaming off the pages. The symbiotic relationship there does not work. Even if my students were dung beetles, they would not recognize the educational caviar before them. That’s no one’s fault really. It’s just a reality we accept and work with. Yogurt needs active cultures to nourish its consumer, and I have decided to look at the technology as a means to nourish kids as they work through the content and the skills associated with the 21st Century lifestyle.
Long-winded as this is, I hope that I can choose the correct formulation (skills and technology) to supplement the soil (content and best practices) to help my students (the seeds) grow and prosper. Symbiosis suddenly seems so simple, NOT!
And yes, I did not write about the bees and flies. I posted a post script to the chagrin of classmates...
Oops! I forgot the bees and flies. I guess we could say those also represent the skills and technology. That's a much prettier image than motivation and testing!
Okay, this is a simile stretch, but hey! Think symbiotic relationships you learned about in biology class. There was the sea anemone and the clown fish (pretty fix attracts big predator fish, swims for the closest sea anemone for cover, and the predator "gets it"!). Then there was the Goby fish and the shrimp! Or how about the fig trees and fruit bats? This could go on and on, but for the sake of this post, let's think flowering plants and pollinators (bees and flies).
Humor me.
We know content! We know best practices! That's been drummed into our heads like nutrients into soil! So where in the world do we cram in technology standards and the present century's skills? Could that be why we are sort of overwhelmed? We had an overabundance of the first two before we started this class.
It is easy to look upon those skills and the technology standards as parasites that will eat away at content and/or best practices--especially if we are resistant. However, as gardeners who plant knowledge and futuristic skills right along with common sense and practical everyday applications as we know them, we come up with a rather interesting hybrid. That brings us to an interesting problem where we as the gardener-educators have to consider adaptations and in a number of potential environments.
As I look at the project I've been working on, I really do wish I had seen the Wiggins/McTighe model at the BEGINNING and worked backwards! The irony of that is not wasted. I get it. When I look at what I started out with and then revised, I wonder if I need to start over again. It's a learning curve, and that's how it goes sometimes--practice more so you don't strike out in the end (because you refused to consider the likely flaws in your original plan(s).
Ultimately, I have to address this week's question. How do I see the present century's skills set and the national technology standards coming into play in my unit of study/final project? I could pretend I am certain at this moment, but you would catch me in that resolution. We all know this is a metamorphic process of discovery. The new eyeglasses and the magnifying glass I brought from my classroom are by nature only cosmetic help. The only way I'm going to know for sure is to roll up my cotton shirt sleeves, take a seat in the office rolly chair I've moved to the kitchen table, and embrace Grant Wiggins's idea of planning. [Enter the irony. I cannot stand the new textbook I was given, and he is the editor. My kids are not equipped to handle the book and its mission. Perhaps when the kids who are in elementary school arrive in a few years, that will change. Hope so. It’s a very pretty book that has Wiggins’s methods steaming off the pages. The symbiotic relationship there does not work. Even if my students were dung beetles, they would not recognize the educational caviar before them. That’s no one’s fault really. It’s just a reality we accept and work with. Yogurt needs active cultures to nourish its consumer, and I have decided to look at the technology as a means to nourish kids as they work through the content and the skills associated with the 21st Century lifestyle.
Long-winded as this is, I hope that I can choose the correct formulation (skills and technology) to supplement the soil (content and best practices) to help my students (the seeds) grow and prosper. Symbiosis suddenly seems so simple, NOT!
And yes, I did not write about the bees and flies. I posted a post script to the chagrin of classmates...
Oops! I forgot the bees and flies. I guess we could say those also represent the skills and technology. That's a much prettier image than motivation and testing!