Extra Credit ~ The Mindsets

While reading about the two mindsets, fixed and growth I started to think a lot about how I learn or used to learn. In high school I know I had a fixed mindset. I was labeled as smart, I was in honors and AP classes and didn't have to try very hard to get the good grade. My younger sister on the other hand always tried, she studied in high school for hours a night and her hard work paid off, she was valedictorian of her high school class. I am not sure my younger sister is smarter than me, but I know that in high school she worked harder than me which in turn got her even better grades. In school my sister had a growth mindset, she took every opportunity to learn and grow and she put the effort in to make sure that she succeeds. In high school I know I had a fixed mindset, I looked at studying and work as something you needed to do if you weren't smart. I let myself down in my thinking, but I didn't realize that until sophomore year of college.

I have always been good at playing my instrument but sophomore year my lesson instructor threw extremely difficult pieces of music at me. He knew that I was just surviving on my raw talent alone and not practicing as much as a good musician should. I failed miserably that first semester and at the end, he told me that I failed not because I was not a good musician but because I didn't put in any effort. That revelation changed the way that I play and practice and ever since. I have been trying to change my way of thinking in every aspect of my life. I need to remember that putting in the effort is a good thing. I don't believe that I am fully at a growth mindset yet, but I am working on it and reworking the way I think about how I learn.

I think that this is a very important thing for teachers to be aware of. When you have students that are very bright but don't want to put in the effort because it makes them look lazy or dumb, I believe that it is our job to push them and show them the better way. It is very easy to keep them in their comfort zone, give them harder prompts, and pieces of music. Make them have to change their way of thinking about studying or practicing. This change in thinking will only help every aspect of their lives. The article Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets that Shape Our Lives talks about how these mindsets go beyond school and affect our personal relationships. The author Maria Popova stats

 "Those with a fixed mindset believed their ideal mate would put them on a pedestal and make them feel perfect, like “the god of a one-person religion,” whereas those with the growth mindset preferred a partner who would recognize their faults and lovingly help improve them, someone who would encourage them to learn new things and became a better person. The fixed mindset, it turns out, is at the root of many of our most toxic cultural myths about “true love.”

Fixing this problem early on will positively impact the student's entire life and his/her ability to create meaningful relationships. 

The only way to fix the problem is to be able to identify it in our students and in ourselves. A teacher with a fixed mindset is not going to be able to see the benefits of a growth mindset and be able to demonstrate it and encourage students to keep up the work and effort. A teacher with a fixed mindset runs the risk of not growing as a teacher and becoming the best teacher they can be for the benefits of their students. 

This youtube video is a great resource to learn about the differences between Growth and Fixed mindsets. The first step in fixing the problem is being able to recongnize it. 

Week 5 ~ Writing Multiple Choice Questions

This week's resources were all about writing multiple choice question. While I was reading the resources on writing good multiple choice questions I thought about all the multiple choice tests I have taken over the years. There were a lot, as a student I like multiple choice tests the best as I am sure most students do, but I also started thinking about it as a teacher. As a teacher, I would assume that grading multiple choice tests is easier especially if they use scantron to give their tests. Reading the article Ten Rules for Writing Multiple Choice Questions made me realize that a lot of the tests I have taken broke quite a few of those rules. Many of the tests used "None of the above" or "All of the above" and usually the answer was one of those. After a while, if I saw one of those was an answer I usually picked that one. I could see how putting that could also break the rule to not trick students. A teacher could put a few "None of the above" questions in the test where that was the answer and then put some in where it is not the answer.

The resource Writing Multiple-Choice Test Items talked writing good stem questions. I have never really thought about giving more information to the question instead of the potential answers. When I think about it that does make sense. If you want to test a students comprehension or critical thinking you would give the students the most information up front, let them reason it out. By giving them the word and having them match it to the definition is just testing if they can remember and recall information. That is not learning it is just memorizing. 

I have never thought to write multiple choice questions that test comprehension because it is easier to write them to test if the students can memorize the information and then spit it out at a later date. As a teacher, we owe it to our students to make sure that they are getting the most out of their education. We give that to them by teaching them comprehension techniques and making sure they actually know the information after they leave our classroom, and don't learn it just to pass a test and then forget it.  

Week 5 ~ Using Twitter for Professional Development

For my technology in education class, we needed to create a professional Twitter account and follow different educators and education groups. We also needed to be active on Twitter and create and share posts. The whole point of the assignment was to show how useful Twitter can be and how there are great resources on it.

I will be the first to admit that I was very skeptical about using Twitter in a professional manner. I have never had a Twitter account before this class. I didn't see Twitter as a useful outlet for my time and avoided it. But I do have a Facebook page and I know that if there is anything useful on Facebook it usually get buried underneath piles of useless information.  I didn't think that Twitter would be any different, especially because it seems everyone of every age has a Twitter now.

I was surprised at how much useful information was on Twitter. The educational groups and the individuals clearly loved what they do and want to share their ideas. Most of the ideas I came across were great and something that I stored away for the future when I have my own classroom. I really like how there were so many different people with lots of good ideas from around the world.

My experience with Twitter chat was interesting, it was kind of stressful because you had to search for the questions and then everyone in the chat was typing so fast and there were so many good ideas being thrown around. But it was awesome to see so many people participate and be passionate about teaching.

In my future teaching, I know that I will go to Twitter to get lesson ideas and better myself as a teacher. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of Twitter and had the chance to follow some great educators.

Week 4 ~ Blooms Taxonomy

Blooms Digital Taxonomy is a remake of Blooms revised Taxonomy which comes from the original Blooms Taxonomy that was created in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom. I know that this all seems a little confusing and hectic but all three of the Taxonomy's are actually saying the same thing. The revised Taxonomy started by changing the first domain which is cognitive to use verb words. Instead of using the words knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, the revised taxonomy used remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. This made the taxonomy more accessible and easier to understand how each element fits together.  Educational Origami's article on Blooms Digital Taxonomy explains how those words fit together and how a child gets from a low order thinking skill to a high level thinking skill.

Before we can understand a concept we have to remember it
Before we can apply the concept we must understand it
Before we analyse it we must be able to apply it
Before we can evaluate its impact we must have analysed it
Before we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analysed, and evaluated.

As a musician, I see this every time I teach a lesson or even when I play my instrument. In order to understand how to play notes on an instrument you need to first memorize what buttons to push, then you need to understand how to play, how to set an embouchure and press the buttons while you play. You can then evaluate how you sounded what worked and didn't work then analyze why it didn't work what happened or what didn't happen. After you mastered those skills you can then create music.

Blooms Taxonomy also talks about collaboration. Technology is a perfect way to collaborate. There are so many sites to bring parents into their student's education, there are ways to bring other students from different schools or even countries. The ways to collaborate keep growing the new ideas and thoughts that it can bring can help students develop their low order thinking skills.

Blooms Taxonomy has two other domains:
The Affective domain which deals with emotions and attitudes
The Psychomotor domain which deals with manipulatives and physical skills

Week 3 ~ The New Way to Tell Stories

As your high school English classes will tell you, storytelling was our first way to pass on our wisdom, lessons, and histories. Telling stories predates written language, and even though we have easier ways to pass on wisdom and teach lessons storytelling is still the most effective and most commonly used. I see this skill every day with my two-year-old students in my daycare class. They create stories for everything from what they had for dinner last night to why I told them not to run in the classroom. They remember every page of their favorite book whenever I read it, but sometimes forget my name and the name of their classmates. It only makes sense to me that an effective teaching tool involves telling stories. Stories are exciting and stories captivate us. The article The Science of Storytelling by Leo Widrich says that "Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too." This means that we remember stories as if we lived them. The effect on learning is immense. If teachers can take difficult subject matters and new ideas and present them in a story they could potentially raise understanding and proficiency of a skill. In college whenever I needed to remember a composers name and dates I always remembered the ones that had stories attached to them. It didn't always even have to be about the composer it could be about my professor and something that happened to them while learning about them or playing a piece by them. I have seen stories work first hand and I plan to use them in whatever way I can in my teaching. 

Week 2~What Technology Can Give to Students

The use of technology in the classroom has made learning and teaching easier. It has allowed teachers to bring more to their students. It has enhanced teacher lessons and brought resources, ideas, and viewpoints students. As a music educator, it has allowed for students to hear and see music better. Programs are easier to use and allow for students to let their own musical ideas come through, where before they would have to sit down at a piano with pen and paper and pluck out their melodies and harmonies. With new composition software, they are able to hear all parts in real time with different instrumentation.

Personally, I have not been able to see firsthand how technology and Ipads help children and students with special needs. After watching the 60 Minutes video about how Ipads and technology have changed these people's lives for the better is very eyeopening. I was amazed that before the technology existed some of these people and students had such a limited way of communicating. I realize that the technology was not there yet but I can't imagine being their family and teachers and trying to help them while at the same time having no idea what they are trying to say. I think it is amazing to see technology being used the way it was intended to be used, to help people and enrich lives. The potential use of technology with people with special needs is endless. It is going to be so exciting to see where technology can take us and take people with special needs.

Welcome!

Welcome to Technology in Education!