Teacher as Learner

LIBE 477 Reading Review, Part B: Middle Aged, Fledgling Learner

emadsen2 Comments

 I am a 49 year old woman with greying hair, bags under my eyes, and arthritis. I have been a teacher longer than some of my coworkers have been alive. I have finally reached the point where I am starting to do the math to figure out when I can realistically retire without it seeming like a pipe dream. So why the heck do I feel like a first year teacher?! I’m at the point in my career, after 24 years, where I should know what I’m doing. Nope. My teaching life at the moment seems to be a matter of triage because I am juggling so many things that are new and challenging and just trying to keep afloat one day to the next. But while I am exhausted, it is truly exhilarating.

 

 

“Can I take a silly photo of you, Ms. Madsen?” -Gwen L., grade 10

As long as you accentuate the bags under my eyes…

 

My thoughts and key words last time were spurred by my desire to use this inquiry project for practical purposes. The goal of the course is “[e]xploration of emerging technologies, strategies and resources that will enhance and extend school libraries into interactive, service-oriented, community building entities that support the development of personal learning networks.” By sheer luck, I have managed to land myself in just such a reality. However, I am a brand new cog in this inquiry machine, and I have a LOT of learning to do. Serendipitously, I have been assigned an independent inquiry project on “the pedagogical uses of digital technologies and media for learning” and “life in the knowledge age” ((McNee, 2022)– beautifully related to what I’m actually doing professionally. What a brilliant opportunity to “get inside it” and learn more about the components of PLP!

    No pressure, noob!

My instructions were to spend an hour or two researching a variety of resources that will hopefully be useful for my inquiry. Hahahahahaha… and hour or two… In my experience, nothing on the internet ever gets done in an hour or two– too many rabbit holes! Nonetheless, I have persevered and settled on some good stuff. 🎉

Among the MANY new things to me this fall is working on a true team (as opposed to the general staff that the principal labelled a team for propaganda purposes). This approach is appealing and exciting, but brand new territory, so I’m looking for insight. My initial perception is there’s lots of upside (support, sharing ideas, collective intelligence), but potential challenges (personalities, consistency for students, time management), so I’m curious what the research says. I selected this article because a lot of my questioning centres on the students and how they respond to being team taught. I also think this is at the heart of what good pedagogy is: community. And if there is strength in personal learning networks, it’s great to have one as part of your everyday teaching life. So I really want to understand this dynamic to maximize its potential.

While I have been exposed to project-based learning, I can honestly say I have only “dabbled” in it. I am finding unit design challenging– there is a huge learning curve. But I think it can be awesome, so it is definitely worth understanding. What I like about this resource is it includes “Facilitating factors in the implementation of project-based learning” and “How teachers can support project-based learning in the classroom – what the evidence shows,” practical topics for me at this stage.

PLP was largely inspired by High Tech High in San Diego, so I thought a useful resource would be to learn about the source: What is the pedagogical reasoning? How does technology improve student learning? What are the secrets to their success? Learning by example is always one of the strongest learning tools!

After hours down the rabbit hole, it dawned on me that I had forgotten about one of the best resources at my disposal: my own Teacher Librarian (and team leader) extraordinaire! Our team shares a platform (the app Craft), where we do our curriculum and unit designs, communicate, and share, and this includes some fabulous books and other professional resources that have been curated for our use. So I checked that out to see what might be useful for me here and found this treasure trove:

I am familiar with the ASCD Quick Guides— I own several myself, having been introduced to them than none other than my TL friend. 😁 They are fabulous in that they are rich in content yet economical in length– perfect learning tools for busy teachers. The titles most relevant to me right now are:

  1. “Getting Started with Project Based Learning”
  2. “Giving Students Effective Feedback”
  3. “Co-teaching Essentials”
  4. “Media Literacy in Every Classroom”
  5. “Communication Strategies for Successful Co-teaching”

Gotta ❤️ a librarian!

I found this gem while checking out more ASCD guides… rabbit hole… 🤦‍♀️ But I love this because for all the advantages technology affords us as educators, it’s still all about the human connection. So while the iPad may be front and centre in our advertising, it is the interactions of students and teachers and engagement and socio-emotional, kinaesthetic, hands on good stuff that really matters!

Someone thinks I’ve been at the computer long enough…

McNee, D. (2022). Course Outline. LIBE 477: Special topics in teacher librarianship [Online course]. Canvas. https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/103489/pages/course-outline?module_item_id=4814899

LIBE 477 Reading Review, Part A: Whatcha gonna do?!

emadsenLeave a comment

I am really fortunate in that I do not need to anticipate a new opportunity arising in my teaching in the near future because I am living that new opportunity.  After a number of years feeling like I was very much trying to push my practice on my own, I have been welcomed onto a team that is doing wonderful things pedagogically and I am so excited to be exploring new technology-rich frontiers with like-minded educators.

When people look at our program probably the first thing that they see that sets it apart is the fact that each student uses an iPad. However, the innovation of this program goes far beyond the obvious. But the one on one use of a device is an enticing prospect for me. As somebody who has worked as a teacher librarian and humanities teacher, I am excited by the expanded opportunities afforded my students by the use of the iPad: It is versatile and allows for tremendous creativity. While it is capable of traditional tools like word processing and Internet searches, there is so much more possibility, including communication beyond the walls of the school, creative work such as movies, animation, podcasts, and blogs, as well as adaptive options such as voice to text and text reader, promoting more opportunity for success among more students. Furthermore, becoming comfortable using the iPad helps develop problem-solving skills in students as well as encouraging collaboration as they both help each other and work together on their projects. And the iPad is gloriously portable, meaning learning can occur anywhere– as it so often does in real life.

Beyond just the use of technology, the program is also project-based learning which is new to me and very exciting. While I am feeling a definite learning curve in my planning process, I realize the opportunity for more real world, meaningful work by my students. I am also encouraged by my teammates to include real, authentic resources in the planning. So we will not just be learning within the walls of our school but are encouraged to move beyond and seek opportunity and expertise elsewhere. Hopefully this real-world exposure brings authenticity their work that in turn increases engagement in the learning.

Finally the third aspect of my new role that excites me the most is the fact that I am working as part of a team. In my experience as a teacher, the most powerful things I have done have come out of collaborative experiences. By its very nature, our program is designed for us to function as a team. For example, students don’t have one teacher for humanities for a year or even for a semester, but will have several teachers working with them throughout the year. This shifting not only exposes students to more educators and teaching styles, but allows us to work together as we get to know all of our learners and discus ways to support them as a team. Furthermore, as teachers we know the value of good feedback to our students, and so we follow this mindset ourselves, and work at developing projects, openly seeking feedback from the team as we go. This helps make us all better as well as exposes us to what the other team members are doing and allows us to build off of this to benefit of our students. And this is invaluable to me as the noob on the team!

As we strive to educate independent learners, one of the things that I am most focussed on is helping my students be smart and curious seekers of information. Information is ubiquitous nowadays; however, what our students need from us is the capacity to determine how to find information that is relevant, reliable, and useful. I also hope to build students’ capacities to synthesize information from different sources and increase their ability to connect things and ultimately engage in “big picture” thinking. In helping students become more discerning consumers of media, it is exciting to know that I am working in an environment that encourages engagement with these media and that allows students the opportunity to do so on a regular basis and not just intermittently as is so often the case in schools. A text book does not represent an authentic flow of information. Information comes from websites, blogs, social media, films, TV shows and conversations with other human beings. If that’s how people really learn, that’s how students ought to learn. The more we give students opportunities for learning that mirrors how people function outside the school, the better positioned they are for taking on challenges after graduation.

Areas of interest:

  • Digital workflow
  • Information literacy: database searches, media literacy
  • Collaborative teaching
  • Curation of information
  • Real-world learning
  • Technology in PBL

Click here to read about my awesome program!