Blog moved for EDIM course

All new entries will be found at: http://alizadok.blogspot.com/

The reason for the change is that it is easier for me to add video through blogger.

Sorry about the confusion!

An introduction for EDIM 516 & Resources for Homeschooling Gifted Kids

Apologies, I’m struggling with getting video to load onto either you tube or vimeo, feeling just a bit frustrated! So for a little intro… my name is Melissa Fisher. I live at a base of a small mountain in Maine, and enjoy making music, jewelry and paintings. In truth, I don’t do much creative work anymore. My real hobbies are taking classes at Wilkes and trying to repair my health. I had severe anemia which was messing with my blood pressure/ heart and it’s been a slow journey to recovery. Meanwhile, I am homeschooling 5 kids, ages 2-12. I’m what’s called an eclectic homeschooler, which means I use whatever works instead of sticking to one particular theory of education.

Starting out in this parenting journey, I had a background in Psychology (Bachelor’s from Loyola University Chicago), and some work experience in social work and education. This helped give me a basic understanding on typical child development, brain growth, emotional needs of children, etc. (I also had a very good understanding of trauma which I hope not to need as a parent). When I had my first child, it became clear by 18 months that he was not typical. At the time, he became extremely frustrated because he knew letters meant something but he didn’t know what.  He wanted to read, and was going to scream until he figured it out. I wasn’t quite sure what to do and wasn’t comfortable talking to other moms I knew as they spent much time comparing their children and could be hyper-sensitive. So, I followed his interest, got him a couple phonics videos, and by two he was reading.

He was reading, he also started writing letters (which also involved screaming until he figured it out), and taking care of him was intense. I craved support and started to look online to find it. One of the first (and still the best) websites you find when looking for information on gifted children is Hoagies. From there, I found the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum, which has a wonderful support group. When I really get stuck, I turn to them, and they have always been helpful. Around the same time, I picked up Genius Denied (Jan & Bob Davidson, 2004) in a bookstore and became aware or the work of the Davidson Institute. This book is fairly simple but it motivated me to make sure that my son’s educational needs were going to be met throughout his school years. The basic premise of the book is that when gifted children’s academic needs are not met, they suffer various negative consequences, including higher risk of depression (and suicide) and developing poor work habits (which meant they didn’t know how to deal with a real challenge when met later in life, as in a difficult course in college). The premise of the book range true for my experience, that of my friends, and family. Even when we had gone to “good” schools, when we weren’t challenged, we suffered, and often floundered in college. I want something different for my kids. Another book which is an interesting read about gifted kids, reflects the work of Miraca Gross (2004) in Australia, is: Exceptionally Gifted Children. This one is a bit refreshing for me because the cases presented are more extreme than what I am dealing with. Here is an article by the same author.

Beyond gifted education, I try to make a point to read and consider the work of a different educator each year. These include: The Well Trained Mind (2009) by Susan Bauer (important to the classical education movement), works by John Holt (unschooling, not really my thing), and The Original Homeschool Series by Charlotte Mason (fun, like having a conversation with your grandmother whom you might disagree with sometimes, but had better respect). This year I am hoping to incorporate ideas from the Big Picture Schools.

I also subscribe and unsubscribe to various blogs, etc. They can be fun, but can also suck up much time. I have several mainstream & tech ones that are related to my education at Wilkes, but some blogs I actually enjoy are: Math With Bad Drawings, Gas Station without Pumps, and for the crafty little kids: Wee Folk Art.

For our class, I am supposed to reflect on some of the challenges surrounding resources. One challenge is money. Once, I bought a science curriculum that was supposed to last two years and it only lasted a couple weeks. I have had to pace myself with books which I buy for both myself and my kids. Another is time. Spending too much time on the internet is not conducive to getting good education actually done. Another challenge is finding other people who want to do what my kids want to do. (Sometimes I succeed, sometimes not.) The last challenge is simply my lack of technical skills, which I’m hoping my time at Wilkes will help alleviate. It has definitely made me more confident that I can find what I need technically.

References

Bauer, S. & Bauer, J. (2009). The Well Trained Mind. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Big Picture Schools [home page], retrieved from: http://www.bigpicture.org Davidson, J., Davidson, B., & Vanderkam, L. (2004).

Genius Denied. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Davidson Institute [home page], retrieved from: http://www.davidsongifted.org/

Gas Station without Pumps [home page], retrieved from: https://gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com/

Gifted Homeschoolers Forum [home page], retrieved from: http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/

Gross, Miraca (2004). Exceptionally Gifted Children. London & New York: RoutlegeFalmer.

Gross, Miraca, “Exceptionally and Profoundly Gifted Students: An underserved population” accessed from Hoagies Education Page [web page] at: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/underserved.htm

Hoagies [home page], retrieved from: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/

Mason, Charlotte. The Original Homeschool Series can be accessed at: http://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html

Math With Bad Drawings [home page], retrieved from: http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/

Wee Folk Art [home page], retrieved from: http://weefolkart.com/

A Cheap Way to Go to College*

*note: this is not an “official” post for the EDIM 516 course. However, this course is giving my conscience a twinge that I should  share what I learn, so here goes…

Some of you in the homeschool community have heard of College Plus. For others this will be the first time you have heard of it, so I’ll give a brief explanation here. College Plus targets teenagers and young adults and helps them earn a bachelors quickly and cheaply. They do this by supporting students to amass large amount of amount of CLEP credits (which you earn by taking tests in various subject areas). Then you transfer to a partner institution such as Charter Oak State College, which is reasonably priced and is willing to accept the credits.

The kicker is that you could save a couple thousand by the student getting the CLEP credits on their own and then transferring to the partner institution directly. Realize this may not be the right approach for everyone. Not all degrees are offered, and it doesn’t fulfill any romantic notions of college. But it does give high school students and young adults a way to pay for college with part-time jobs instead of student loans, which makes it a pretty exciting option to me!

Technology Goals in K-12

Some things haven’t really changed since I was a kid. The three R’s are still important as they always have been. Most of us have an internal compass in what our kids need to learn because we went through it ourselves. (Not that we choose to always teach in the way we were taught, but we at least have a content framework in our minds.)  This doesn’t quite work for technology as things change so quickly. Some of my grade school experiences were actually pretty good- LOGO programming, fooling around on Apple’s earlier word processing and paint programs. I had an uncle who worked for Berkley labs, so I was actually a bit spoiled in terms of cutting edge technology.

 

My last year of high school, I had a boyfriend tell me about this amazing new creation called the internet. I thought it sounded like a lame time waster. Now, I wouldn’t call it lame, but am perfectly capable of wasting my time on it. The National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) steps into that gap to give us basic guidelines about what our students need to learn about technology to be competent in today’s world. They also have a breakdown of “Student Profiles” which gives examples of what activities would be appropriate for different grade levels. You could use these resources both to check to see if your students are up do speed with the technology and also to help plan where they need help.

 

The main areas discussed are:

1. Creativity and Innovation

2. Communication and Collaboration

3. Research and Information Fluency

4. Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

5. Digital Citizenship

6. Technology Operations and Concepts

 

When I look at these areas and think of my older boys, I think that they are somewhat involved in learning in all of these categories from their recreational activities. The weakest area would be “4. Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making” so it would make sense to look at this area more closely. If I then look at the “Student profile” it can give me some ideas. Some of the ideas they use as examples are, ” Debate the effect of existing and emerging technologies, society, and the global community.” or “Use collaborating electronic authoring tools to explore common curriculum content from multicultural perspectives with other learners.” The first idea just involve a good conversation, and the second involves “collaborating electronic authoring tools”.  Sounds great, but what “Collaborating Electronic Authoring tools?”. There are multiple organizations which serve to connect students in projects, such as GLOBE and GlobalSchoolNet.org. These sound like they are geared towards schools, although some projects like Journey North have been used by homeschoolers as well. I don’t know of many large organizations which are tailored to connecting homeschoolers together, although parents will use yahoo groups to share ideas and sometimes set up penal/ Skype pals for their kids. If we can find more ways to connect as a community, then there are sites which would enable to create projects together, such as Wikispaces and Voicethread. Some homeschoolers also use blogs (such as wordpress.com) to communicate, and we have online classrooms.

 

I envision something much larger though. An online community for students to share ideas and work together. Students come together freely to build video games on sites like Scratch, but it would be nice to see a format for students to come together to share their sense of wonder for all subjects and share their creative and analytical work.

 

 

References

 

Annenberg Learner presents Journey North: A global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. Retrieved from: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program (GLOBE). Retrieved from: http://www.globe.gov

GlobalSchoolNet.org. Retrieved from: http://www.globalschoolnet.org

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2007). National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-students

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2007). NETS for Students: 2007 profile. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-students/nets-for-students-2007-profiles

Scratch. Retrieved from: http://scratch.mit.edu

Skype. Retrieved from: http://www.skype.com/en/

Voicethread. Retrieved from: http://voicethread.com

Wikispaces. Retrieved from: http://www.wikispaces.com

WordPress. Retrieved from: http://wordpress.com

 

 

 

http://projectapproach.org/blog.php

http://projectapproach.org/blog.php

http://www.creativitypost.com/education/how_to_inspire_the_next_generation_of_creative_thinkers_and_innovators

http://www.creativitypost.com/education/how_to_inspire_the_next_generation_of_creative_thinkers_and_innovators

Project Based Learning Examples

I recently started a class on Project Based Learning for Wilkes University. We were asked to analyze three different projects highlighted by :  edutopia.org

In “More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!”  by Diane Curtis( 2001), points that stood out were:

1.       There was a basic design: choosing a topic, research (including field trips and experts coming to the class) experimentation, and a presentation to classmates and family members.

2.       The class topic chosen lasts for an entire year.

3.       The school, as a whole, was committed to project based learning. This both encourages students by building a larger community of inquiry and teachers by knowing both the staff and administration will their support time and effort spent on projects.

4.       There was a nice interplay between the teacher asking for student ideas and the teacher developing and evaluating those ideas until they found a unit study that was both meaningful and practical.

5.       Students had a chance to focus on projects that were not just interesting both also addresses their emotional needs, such as understanding what was effective classmates with health problems, such as cystic fibrosis or asthma. This must be very empowering and in some cases healing to students.

“Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning”  by Sara Armstrong (2002) was an article I really loved when I was first exposed to it through the Inquiry Based Learning Class at Wilkes. Some points about it are:

1.       The project took place after the main content for the year was done. It was a middling length project, six weeks.

2.       Students worked as teams.

3.       The project,  project constraints and steps the project was to take was all chosen by the teacher.

4.       Experts were brought in not only to present informations, but to serve as mentors and give feedback to the students. This feedback piece is important.

5.       The final projects were shared and evaluated by the panel of experts, not the teacher.

6.       However, the rubric was created by the teacher and I assume given to the students beforehand.

7.       Students not only made planning decisions and expressed creativity in the act of designing a physical school, they also had a chance to explore the meaning of school and what they thought a modern school should be like. This gave a chance for the project to be personally meaningful.

The last article was “March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies’ Migration” written by Diane Curtis (2002). Points noticed in this project include:

1.       Neither the classroom teacher nor the students are creating the project. The teacher selects activities created by Journey North: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

2.       The projects are interdisciplinary, connecting science, writing, geography, art, gardening and math.

3.       This project connects the class to larger communities, including children in another country (Mexico), and to the idea that scientists and novices can work together to collect information. A similar project  aimed at adults would be the Christmas Bird Count by Audubon: http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count

4.       The projects used both technical tools for learning (information online) and hands on naturalistic tools (gardening, bird watching).

When I look at these projects together, I see a variety of levels of teacher control and release. All the projects clearly have more student involvement than a lecture, but how much students are able to direct their learning varies. All of the projects involved group work, either at a class or team level. I don’t think this necessarily has to be true for project based learning, but it is common, and is the source of much of the real work learning. (Working well on teams is a skill!) All of these projects included expert help. Again the level of this help varied, ranging from a simple presentation to course design. In the end, I think this is the main piece I took from this. It’s not just about designing the projects; it’s about connecting students to experts in content areas in the real world.

                                                   References

Armstrong, S. (2002). Geometry students angle into architecture through project learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Christmas bird count. (n.d.) Retrieved March 13, 20014 from: http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count

Curtis, D.  (2001). More fun than a barrel of . . . worms?!  Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002). March of the monarchs: students follow the butterflies’ migration. Retrieved from

http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Edutopia: What works in education.  (n.d.). Retrieved March 1th, 2014 from: www.edutopia.org

Journey North Citizen Science: A Global Study Of wildlife migration and seasonal change. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13^th, 2014 from:  http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count

Gifted Adults in Work

Gifted Adults in Work

Final Inquiry Based Learning Post

First, I still have a couple questions of things that have come up in class.

1. What is the usefulness of using new technology in class and what is the opportunity cost? It seems naive to think that using as much technology as possible is a good idea. It’s expensive, time consuming, and may have some negative effects (too much screen time linked to depression, etc.). At this point, these are the helpful areas I see  for computer application: basic comfort using a computer, programming skills, research, communication and presentation skills. Also, there is a great deal visual content available. This seems to be a mixed bag, as the information is often rich but the learning is passive. I suspect many applications may be fun but wasteful. An example of a technology I am unsure of… blabberize.com. Yes, I get that it’s fun, but it seems healthier to me for the student to do an oral presentation, make a puppet, or put on a play.

2. I really enjoyed the BSCS 5E instructional model, but I am unclear on how it relates to inquiry based learning. On a related note, there seems to be a contradiction between free intellectual exploration and precise lesson planning. If I am encourage a student to explore freely, then I really don’t know what content will be covered. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, just that I don’t see how to do both at once.

Now for the actual assignment…

I think the most important thing I learned in this class was the need for scaffolding to be effective in inquiry based learning. I was also required to leave my comfort zone to explore new technologies, which was helpful.

Ironically, one thing that has changed is that I have released the thought that inquiry based learning is necessarily better than direct instruction. I think I enjoy it as a technique, but realize that different techniques may be better for different situations.

I am planning on continueing to give my students room to explore their questions and interests. I am also trying to build an online community to encourage students questioning and answering.

p.s. Oh, and I applied for a new part time job. Wish me luck!

Digital Textbooks

Digital Textbooks